When it comes to playing games on a smartphone the iPhone currently wins hands down due to the quality on offer in the App Store. But if you want to play emulated games then Android is looking to be the better platform simply because no jailbreak is required to gain access to retro games.

A new PlayStation emulator has been released for Android, created by ZodTTD and yongch who are known for their emulation work on iPhone and Palm Pre platforms. This new emulator is called PSX4Droid.

Available now on the Android Market it costs $5.99, but does mean classics such as Final Fantasy VII, Ridge Racer, Crash Bandicoot, and Earthworm Jim will be available to play on the go without carrying a second device such as a PSP.

This is an emulator for high-end Android phones, and currently sports the following features:

Uses formats BIN,ISO,IMG,PBP,Z,ZNX, and Eboot (compressed too)

WiiMote controller works

Trackball dpad

Memory card & save states

Virtual control overlays

Scaling modes

In terms of performance the games look to be playable, but the frame rate does noticeably drop depending on the game being played. However, it is meant to be better than emulation available on the iPhone depending on what handset you are using. Clearly the more powerful ARM chips will make for a better play experience.

While the emulator may be available, getting hold of the ROMS is illegal. But if Sony and game developers don’t re-release games for Android then emulation is going to continue to be popular.

Emulation is always going to play a role in allowing old games to be played. Not all games get updated and re-released, so if you liked a less popular title from the days of the PlayStation, then there’s little chance you’ll be playing it outside of an emulator or on original hardware.

I’ve got little doubt that with the growing number of Android smartphone owners games will be released for Android from the PlayStation era. With work already carried out to update the graphics for iPhone it’s not going to be that much extra work to port the code over to Android.